St. Landry democrat., 1887-09-24

show him the daub OF some pretender.
| will take him to the Raphaels and the
Michael Angeles. 1t is most unfair and
dishonest to take the ignominious fail
ures in Christian profession instead of
the glorious successes. The Bible and
the church are great picture galleries
filled with masterpieces.
Furthermore: we learn from this story
of Joseph that the result of persecution
is alienation. Had it not been for his
being sold into Egyptian bondage by his
malicious brothers and his false impris-
onment, Joseph would never have become
prime minister. Everybody accepts the
promise, BLESSED are they that are per-
secuted for righteousness sake: for theirs
is the kingdom of Heaven" but they do
not realize the fact that this principle ap-
plies to worldly as well as spiritual sue
cess. 1t is true in all departments. Had
it not been for Eschines, who brought
imprisonment against DemOsthenes,
the immortal Grafton De Corona would
never have been delivered. Men rise to
high political position through misrepre-
sentation and the assault of the public.
Public abuse is all that some of our pub
lie men have had to rely upon for their
elevation. 1t has brought to them what
talent and executive force could never
have achieved. Many of those who are
making great effort for place and power
will never succeed just because they are
not of enough Importance to be abused.
1t is the nature of man to gather about
those who are prosecuted and de-
fend them, and they are apt to
forget the faults of those who are the
subjects of attack while attempting to
drive back the slanderers. Helen Stirk,
a Scotch martyr condemned with her
husband to death for Christ's sake, said
to her husband: "Rejoice; we have lived
together many joyous days, but this day
wherein we must die together ought to
be most joyful to us both. Therefore |
will not bid you good night, for soon we
shall meet in the heavenly kingdom" By
the flash of the furnace best Christian
character is demonstrated.
I 90 into another department, and |
find that those great denominations of
Christians which have been most abused
have spread the most rapidly. No good
man was ever more Wiley maltreated
than John Wesley. His followers were
hooted at and maligned and called by
every detestable name that Internal in
genuity could invent, but the hotter the
pclScCullOu IuC IlOlC la plu tAC PlCu1 VI
that denomination, until you know what
a great host they have become and what
q tremendous force for God and the
truth they are welding all the world
over 1t was persecution that gave
Scotland to Presbyterianism. 1t was
persecution which gave our own land
first to civil liberty and afterward to
religious freedom. Yea, I may go
further back and say it was persecution
that gave the world the great salvation
of the Gospel. The ribald mockery, the
hungering and thirsting, the unjust trial
and ignominious death where all the
force of helrs fury was hurled against
the cross, was the introduction Of that
religion which is yet to be the earth's de-
liverance from guilt and suffering, and
her everlasting enforcement among the
principalities of Heaven. The state has
sometimes said to the church: "Come,
let me take your hand and l will help
you" What has been the result The
church has gone back and has lost
its estate of holiness and has become in
effective. At other times the state has
said to the church: II will crush you.'
What has been the result? After the
storms have spent their fury, the church,
so far from having lost any of its force,
has increased and is worth infinitely
more after the assault than before it,
The church is far more indebted to the
opposition of civil government than to
its approval. The fires of the stake have
only been the torches which Christ held
in His hand by the light of which the
church has marched to her present posi-
ton. In the sound of racks and nipple
ments of torture hear the rumbling of
the wheels of the Gospel chariot Scat
folds of martyrdom have been the stairs
by which the church has assembled. Aqua
FORTS is the best test of pure gold.
Furthermore, our subject impresses us
that sins will come to exposure. Long,
long ago had these brothers sold Joseph
into Egypt. They had suppressed the
crime and it was profound secret we'll
kept by the brothers. But suddenly the
secret is out. The old father hears that
his son is in Egypt, having been sold
there by the malice of his own brothers.
How their cheeks must have burned and
their hearts sunk at the flaming out of
this suppressed crime! The smallest
iniquity has thousand tongues and they
will blab out an exposure. Saul was
sent to destroy the Canaanites, their
sheep and their oxen. But when he got
down there among the pastures he saw
some fine sheep and oxen too fat
to kill, and so he thought he would steal
them. He drove them toward home, but
stopped to report to the prophet how
well he had executed his commission,
when in the distance the sheep began to
bleat and the oxen to below. The secret
was out and Samuel said to the blushing
and COMPOUNDED Saul: "What means
the bleating of the sheep that hear and
the lowing of the cattle ?"2 Aye, my
hearers, you cannot keep an iniquity
quiet. At just the wrong time the sheep
will bleat and the oxen will below.
Achan cannot steal the Babylonish gar
ment without getting stoned to death,
nor Benedict Arnold betray his country
without having his neck stretched
Look over the police arrests - these
thieves, these burglars, these adulterers,
these counterfeiters, these highwaymen,
these assassins They all thought
they could bury their iniquity so
deep down that it would never come to
resurrection. But there was some shoe
that answered to the print in the sand,
some false keys found in possession,
some bloody knife that whispered of the
deed, and the public indignation and
the anathema Of outraged law hurled
him into the Tombs or hoisted him on
the gallows. At the close of the battle
between the Dauphin of France and